Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Líl’wat, St’át’imc, in New York at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

For Immediate Release:

A delegation from Líl’wat, St’át’imc, is attending the 10th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, USA, from May 16 to 27, 2011. Lil’wat is one indigenous community of eleven within St’at’imc (STAT-lee-uhm), about 150 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The St’at’imc, otherwise known as the Lillooet Tribe, are a sovereign nation.

The delegation brings news of two serious actions they are taking to protect themselves from Canada and British Columbia’s incursions on their aboriginal title, rights and freedoms, and self-determination.

The first is a petition to the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. This petition complains of repercussions of the lack of treaty between either Líl’wat or St’át’imc with Canada; repercussions which include the imposition of the Indian Act on St’át’imc citizens. Petition 879-07, Loni Edmonds v. Canada, was accepted on July 13, 2007, and has still not been reviewed. This petition speaks principally to the lack of treaty between the sovereign nation of St’at’imc, particularly the independent community of Lil’wat, and Canada. The key issue which brings the petition forth is British Columbia’s indiscriminate and wholly destructive practice of seizing our children and removing them to non-indigenous homes. This is in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The second issue they bring forward is the recent progress of the “St’át’imc Settlement Agreement with BC Hydro” and the province of British Columbia. This Final Agreement with the public utility BC Hydro Power Corp. has been rejected by a number of concerned citizens for many reasons which fall into two categories: the Agreement itself is inadequate, and the process by which the elected Chiefs manufactured its ratification is an offense to traditional St’át’imc governance and even failed to adhere to their own ratification procedures. Construction of dams and generating facilities in St’at’imc territory, to say nothing of the high voltage powerlines and substations, has caused irreparable harm to the St’at’imc way of life. We wonder if, in fact we suspect that, the elected Chiefs were under some sort of duress.

The people will be orienting themselves in the international forum to see how their complaints against Canada may be made better known internationally, and resolutions supported. They will also be encouraging the debate at the Permanent Forum to turn to matters of treaty, or the lack of which, and the culpability of colonial states who deny recognition to the indigenous nations whose lands and peoples they have co-opted.

Having exhausted the “domestic remedies” available in Canada, the petitioners seek protection from Canada’s persistent interference in their families, communities and in the larger St’át’imc nation socially, politically and economically.

They also seek recourse for the ongoing violence against themselves, homelands and their entire way of life. Since provisions in the Canada-legislated Indian Act, 1876, restricting freedom of travel, meeting to discuss the “land question,” and retention of legal counsel were lifted in 1959, Líl’wat and other St’át’imc have been pursuing justice in BC and Canadian courts – where their cases have been improperly thrown out, left unfinished, or concluded unsatisfactorily- ie., thrown out of court when St’at’imc Hereditary Chiefs demand evidence of Canada or British Columbia’s extinguishment of the St’at’imc title and right. Canada cannot provide this evidence because it does not exist. The courts seem to defer to Canada.

The Líl’wat delegation is releasing this news to the press in hopes that it will be reported as presented for the education of all residents of colonial occupations on indigenous lands.

Líl’wat, also known as Mt Currie, located north of Whistler, is a St’át’imc community.

A Written submission

To the United Nations 10th Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2011

The Elders of my family named me Pau Tuc la Cimc. According to the government of Canada, I am James Douglas Louie, certificate of Indian Band Status Number 5570025701.

I am a Lil’watimc of the St’at’imc Nation.

The Lil’wat, Statimc, declare that our laws were and are oral.

The Statimc are a distinct people who, from time immemorial, have shared the same language, culture customs and history. We live within the domain of the Statimc nation which has occupied, used, and exercised sovereignty over its land and resources for the collective benefit and freedom of its citizens from time immemorial. We subscribe to our nation’s laws, values and traditional systems of government to the exclusion of all other jurisdictions which seek to impose alien and assimilative regimes.

We, people of Lil’wat of the Statimc Nation, have consistently declared that our land and our rights as a Nation have never been relinquished by ourselves. The Creator placed us here on our land with the right to self-determination. The right to self-determination and the right to exist as a people is sacred in our way, and is enshrined as Article 1 of both Covenants of the International Bill of Rights. We believe we have that right.

No one can represent us but us—not Canada, not any church, and no general Aboriginal lobby group in Canada. We have exhausted “domestic remedies” within Canada to get justice and restore our land and our people on our land to their previous state of sovereignty.

Only Lil’watmc can speak for the Lil’wat of the Statimc. We are not Canadian and English is not our first language.

We have suffered persistently for 150 years under the assertion of jurisdiction being carried out by the Canadian Province of British Columbia. We have suffered the indignities, oppression, dispossession, and deprivation of colonial racism and rule, which have denied us our rights and freedoms as human beings and our identity as Statimc citizens.

We have no immediate way of pursuing Canada for reparations, restitution and restoration, but we continue to oppose, reject and resist all efforts of the federal and provincial governments to extinguish our title to our traditional lands and resources in exchange for money and small “fee simple” allotments; impositions of the “Indian Act” on our Nation without our consent—the effect of which is to destroy our claim to nationhood, to redefine us as an ethnic minority and our community as a municipality, to make us subject to property and income taxes and to bring us under colonial rule; and which the Canadian and BC governments pursue by deceiving our citizens and the general public by broadcasting a pretend consultation process to manufacture the appearance of our consent.

Consent, to us, is sacrosanct. We know that our consent to all activity in our nation is protected by international statutes, but we can’t seem to enjoy this protection.

While we invite Canada to engage with us to resolve "the land question," or, the unresolved claims of British Columbia and Canada against Líl'wat and St'át'imc title, our attempts to raise these issues have been thrown out or inadequately treated in British Columbia courts and in the Supreme Court of Canada. . We believe this is because the government of Canada has failed to incorporate our international human rights into domestic law derives much from the illegal sale and lease of our lands and resources. We have no treaty with Canada.

In our pleading to the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Court (Petition 879-07, Loni Edmond v. Canada), we explain this situation thoroughly. The lead problem addressed in that petition relates to whether the Government of Canada has the legal right to seize our children and place them in foster care. Our young children have, for many generations now, been indiscriminately taken from their parents by the province. We cannot get redress and we cannot seem to stop the province from ruining our families this way.

That Petition was formally received by the OAS IACHR as of July 17, 2007 and is now under study in accordance with the current rules of procedure. It was submitted with the assistance of the International Law Clinic of the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, a Non-Governmental Organization in Consultative Status with the UN. We also gratefully acknowledge their support in accrediting our participation here at the 10th session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

We are attending United Nations meetings to bring further attention to our situation: our case has still not been reviewed by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the OAS, though it continues to acknowledge receipt of materials updating the case. We have not received an initial evaluation from the Commission of the OAS.

Canada has imposed itself on our people and our lands unjustly and indefensibly. To quote from our Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe of 1911, "…we are the rightful owners of our tribal territory and everything pertaining thereto." We have no treaty with Canada. We are a nation of the world, unique and self contained, with our own land, language and people; our own culture, government and history. Since 1871 Canada has asserted jurisdiction over our country, and British Columbia has done so since 1859. Again, repeating our 100 year old Declaration, "we deny their right to it."

We believe that our people have, and will always have, the birthright to the lands handed to us by our forefathers and mothers. Until such time as we cede, release, surrender or extinguish our title, we will have this title. We have never made such a release, and plan never to do so—that our people may continue in this world until time out of mind, living peaceably in our homeland—undisturbed and unmolested.

We have suffered almost to the point of extinction as a result of the policy and practices of the province of British Columbia and the state of Canada. At this time, they control us by force through such tactics as seizing our children, incarcerating our adults and defenders, intimidating our Elders, moving our villages, and exercising sway over our elected Chiefs—Indian Act Chiefs elected to administer to us the relief Canada so inadequately delivers in our duress, while our lands are occupied by Canada and the corporations they contract with.

To the present day, the Statimc Nation has had to deal with Federal policies whose effect is genocidal and unlawful under the terms of the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide, in particular Article II (c) "Deliberately inflicting on the ground conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

In addition, Canada is in breach of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which remains an integral part of Canada’s Supreme Law; the Constitution Acts, 1867 and 1982. The Proclamation acknowledged and affirmed that the relationship between Aboriginal Peoples and the British Crown was and would Remain “Nation to Nation”; a relationship which Canada is actively seeking to dismantle in favour of Provincial Jurisdiction. The Proclamation made it unlawful for Colonial Governments and their successors to engage in “Great Frauds and Abuses”; a crime for which Canada was and remains guilty.

The same Proclamation also made it unlawful for Colonial Governments and their successors to interfere in the internal affairs of Indigenous Nations, an edict which has been consistently ignored by Canada and is the cause of great damage to the Statimc people.

With the imposition of the Indian Act, which forces us to replace our traditional government of family head representation with one elected Chief and Council to every Indian Reserve, our usual mutual relationships within our country have been severely challenged. Canada administers poverty rations to each Indian Reserve, which are then distributed by the elected leaders, while Canadian, British Columbian and multi-national corporations reap the riches of our lands, waters and resources that they deny us or restrict our access to.

Now at the 100th anniversary of our Declaration, we are experiencing a painful schism among our people: between those who stand to benefit in the short-term from access to the poverty rations and those who instead stand to lose access to land and water being usurped by the provincial utility, BC Hydro. The leaders in the Indian Act system have arranged a Settlement Agreement with the province and the utility which contradicts all our aspirations to sovereignty in our country. What should be a joyous celebration of our perseverance, our continued survival in the face of all odds, is instead a moment of division. This is but one of the problems we face while our power over ourselves and our land is denied and our physical and cultural survival is undermined.

We hereby reject the so-called Settlement Agreement since it violates our right to

self-determination under customary international law and treaties to which Canada is a party.

We seek reparation, restitution and restoration. We seek recognition of our people and our right to exist in our homeland according to our birthright, to be free and independent.

As repeated from a letter to the OAS IACHR, “What is important, particularly for the credibility of the OAS and its human rights tribunal, is that the OAS must not bring into doubt its belief in the right of the victim to a fair hearing in order to appear to promote equity before the law vis-à-vis the state and the victim.”

We seek the good offices of the United Nations human rights system to advance our case.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Censored News is now posting the Wikileaks US diplomatic cables from Quebec and Montreal, about Mohawks. The border, land claims and struggles are among the issues. Five cables have been posted so far in Censored News Special edition.

In a cable dated July 30, 2009, from Ottawa, the US Ambassador said, "The CBSA customs post on Cornwall Island (Kawehnoke) located on the Mohawk reserve territory of Akwesasne on the Canada-U.S. border closed on May 31. Canadian border guards had left the post citing fears of a violent confrontation with Mohawk residents, who opposed a CBSA directive requiring border guards to carry firearms at the Canadian port-of-entry, effective June 1."

of the original cable is not available.
172252Z May 04id: 16992
date: 5/17/2004 22:52
refid: 04QUEBEC80
origin: Consulate Quebec
classification: CONFIDENTIAL
destination: 04MONTREAL68
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text
of the original cable is not available.
172252Z May 04
----------------- header ends ----------------

Members of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, distinguished representatives of Indigenous Peoples, sisters and brothers here today,

﻿﻿

Indigenous women have a central role to play in the advancement of Indigenous peoples’ human rights and well-being and we welcome the opportunity to play this role throughout this 10th session of the UN Permanent Forum, and we respectfully request that our recommendations be integrated into the final report.

The key concerns that we will be highlighting throughout this session include: promotion of the leadership capacity of Indigenous women and girls (including within Indigenous governance systems and development programs and policies), the rights of Mother Earth (including the protection of sacred rights and the sacred right to water), violence caused by the militarization of Indigenous communities, the need for support of Indigenous women’s role in addressing environmental impacts and Climate Change (including reproductive health rights), food sovereignty, impact of extractive industries on Indigenous communities, unrepresented and unrecognized Indigenous peoples, migration and border issues. We would also like to support the examination of the following issues: using CEDAW to advance Indigenous women’s rights, the need for a standardized interpretation of free, prior and informed consent consistent with the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Doctrine of Discovery and the proposed World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

The Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus endorses and recommends the UN Permanent Forum to consider the following: 1) the “Position on Women and REDD+” by the Indigenous Environmental Network, 2) the statement on the right to water and Indigenous peoples submitted by the American Indian Law Alliance and Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Development, 3) the “People’s Agreement of Cochabamba,” the final document of the World’s People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (April 22, 2010), and 4) the proposal by the Global Indigenous Caucus and the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus for an Expert Group meeting to address the impacts on environmental toxins on the health of Indigenous women, including their reproductive health, in 2012 before the UN Permanent Forum’s 11th Session.

As it is the first time we take the floor, we would like to welcome the new Members of the Permanent Forum to your positions as well as the returning Members, and look forward to working with you for the betterment of Indigenous women, their families and Nations throughout the world.
We offer the following recommendations in relation to Agenda Item 3(a) Follow-up to the recommendations of the Permanent Forum: Economic and Social Development.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. We call upon the Permanent Forum to urge the United Nations system and states to strengthen capacity building and leadership initiatives for Indigenous women in order to facilitate their full and effective participation in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of economic and social development programs and policies undertaken by UN agencies, government agencies, and transnational corporations in Indigenous territories and communities, as well as to participate in their own development models, policies and practices. Furthermore, by strengthening Indigenous women’s capacity building and leadership, this will facilitate the exercise of their right to free, prior and informed consent.

2. We welcome the Permanent Forum’s recognition that Indigenous peoples’ development is intimately linked with education and urge the Permanent Forum to further advance its recommendation that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other United Nations agencies convene an Expert Group Meeting on bilingual, intercultural and multilingual education. Furthermore, we urge the Permanent Forum to continue to ensure recognition of the need for holistic educational programs that take into consideration Indigenous women’s traditional knowledge, pedagogical and didactic practices, and worldviews; and that promote the use and preservation of indigenous languages.
3. Based on paragraphs 33 and 35 of the Permanent Forum’s Report on the 3rd Session, we urge the Permanent Forum to recommend the United Nations system that in implementing culturally appropriate economic and social development programs and policies, it is necessary to recognize the diverse community roles that Indigenous women and girls have, the diversity of gender and age relations, the traditional mechanisms of gender and age definition and distinction, and the inter-generational work in Indigenous communities. These distinctive elements must be adequately reflected in the programs and policies of the systems of the UN, member states and Indigenous peoples.

4. We call upon the Permanent Forum to urge UN agencies, government agencies and transnational corporations to encourage economic development projects that address the most pressing subsistence and health needs of Indigenous communities to promote traditional practices aimed at achieving food sovereignty and holistic health systems.

5. In its 3rd Session Report, paragraph 12, the Permanent Forum calls upon the International Organization on Migration (IOM) to address the urgency of the problems faced by Indigenous migrant women, including the alarming trend of forced trafficking of Indigenous women within and across national and international borders. Given that the Indigenous women’s migration is greatly increasing, we recommend the Permanent Forum requests the IOM to report on its progress achieved in addressing these issues. Furthermore, due to ongoing development projects, environmental degradation and economic crises, we request that special attention is given to Indigenous women’s rights. These rights include the right to move and migrate freely throughout their lands and territories (in the face of involuntary displacement and state relocation of Indigenous communities) and the right to live free from violence experienced by migrant Indigenous women and girls and, indeed, all cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women

The Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life
May 30-June 5, 2011 A 75 mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, MX to Tucson, AZ

Photo by Brenda Norrell. Migrant Trail.

Press conference Monday, May 30, 2011

The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples.

There will be a press conference on Monday, May 30th at 10:30am at Southside Presbyterian Church (317 W. 23rd Street in Tucson, Arizona). The press conference will be held shortly before participants and supporters will head down to Sásabe, Sonora for the beginning of the Migrant Trail.

The purpose of the Migrant Trail is to call attention to the human rights crisis occurring on our borders. Since the 1990s, more than 5,000 men, women and children have lost their lives while attempting to cross the U.S. - México border. As the summer heat approaches, and triple-digit temperatures arrive, this number will dramatically increase, and many will die a horrible death of dehydration, exposure and hyperthermia. Last year, the number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border reached a staggering 253; this is the second-deadliest year on record of migrant deaths. The remains of at least 88 individuals have been recovered thus far this fiscal year (the fiscal year runs from October 1 - September 30). These deaths must stop.

In no way is this journey meant to convey that we have lived the migrant experience. We will have food and water on our journey. We will have medical attention and aid at every step. Participants will be camping at various sites along the way. We will have sufficient rest and protection. We will have what no migrant holds as certain: assurance of reaching our destination. Our intent is to declare solidarity with our migrant brothers and sisters. It is important to understand the dangers that these brave men, women and children face. We will share our experiences with our communities, and will give testimony of our trek through the desert.

Please consider being part of the Migrant Trail this year. By bearing witness with us, you will see and experience for yourself the journey that thousands have made, including the extreme temperatures and terrain of the Sonoran Desert, and the isolation of the journey. You will have the insight into the extent that human beings are willing to go to in order to secure a better future for themselves and their children. Knowing what extreme suffering migrants endure to get here also leads us to consider the economic, political and social factors that drive them to risk and often lose their lives on our border.

For more information, or to confirm your participation on the Migrant Trail, please contact Kat Rodriguez at 520-770-1373 or migrant_trail@yahoo.com. Media participants will also gain access to the unpublished media cell phone. Participants will be available for interviews in either Spanish or English at this unpublished number during the week of the Migrant Trail.

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About Censored News

Censored News is published by censored journalist Brenda Norrell. A journalist for 27 years, Brenda lived on the Navajo Nation for 18 years, writing for Navajo Times, AP, USA Today, Lakota Times and other American Indian publications. After being censored and then terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006, she began the Censored Blog to document the most censored issues. She currently serves as human rights editor for the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague and contributor to Sri Lanka Guardian, Narco News and CounterPunch. She was cohost of the 5-month Longest Walk Talk Radio across America, with Earthcycles Producer Govinda Dalton in 2008: www.earthcycles.net/COPYRIGHTS All material is copyrighted by the author or photographer. Please contact each contributor for reprint permission. brendanorrell@gmail.comAudios may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.

"O FRIEND! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loosen not thy hold." --Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Faith